TPS‐Lean Six Sigma: Linking Human Capital to Lean Six Sigma

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2009), "TPS‐Lean Six Sigma: Linking Human Capital to Lean Six Sigma", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 52-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040910961225

Hubert Rampersad, a distinguished thought leader in the field of leadership development in the USA, is an international management consultant. He has over 20 years of consultancy experience and he has built up an international TPS movement/network covering 30 countries, in the last four years. He has written four books (one of them a best seller) and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for five international journals.

Anwar El‐Hamsi has over 17 years of quality and statistics experience in a variety of industries, and started his own consulting and training company in 2002. He has coached hundreds of companies to improve their quality through Six Sigma (SS). He has also been active in many professional bodies such as the American Society for Quality and Society of Reliability Engineers.

This book comprises 12 chapters (including the introduction), a short epilogue, and four comprehensive appendices. The first chapter briefly covers the evolution of quality and TPS‐lean Six Sigma. It also contains learning outcomes and a brief description of the contents of the following chapters.

Chapter 2 deals with the foundations of TPS The essence of TPS concept that is described helps to understand what drives individuals and learn how to create a personal and the organizational balanced scorecards for enabling mutual growth. The focus of chapter 3 is Lean Six Sigma (LSS), and covers the history and methodology of lean enterprise and Six Sigma quality approaches. It highlights how a combination of these two approaches helps overcome the weaknesses inherent in each of the approaches.

Chapter 4 is the longest (96 pages) chapter of the book and it first introduces an integrated model of the three concepts of TPS, lean enterprise, and SS. It is emphasized that the use of this model requires managers to continuously improve the quality of life of their staff at the workplace as well as in their spare time. Such practices will result in higher productivity, project performance (both quality and shorter times).

The design for TPS‐LSS is the theme of chapter 5, which shows the necessary steps to design and develop mew products and services that meet SS quality in performance and reliability. The implementation aspects of successful TPS‐LSS program are covered in the next chapter, which also covers how to overcome resistance and provides tools (for example, TPS‐LSS implementation quick scan) to test the readiness of an organization. Chapter 7 outlines how to select potential winning projects and highlights the importance of early success to nurture sustainable success. Chapter 8 is a very short (12 pages) chapter that concentrates on managing and tracking TPS‐LSS projects and lists some suitable items for tracking.

The final four chapters introduce types of certifications and training programs offered by tow academies: Academy for TPS‐LSS Certification and Academy for TPS‐LSS Coaching, Consulting, and Training. The first academy offers five types of certification “Belt” programs and these are covered in detail in chapter 9. Chapters 10 to 12 discuss the coaching, consulting and company certification programs.

Appendix A summarizes some of the tools' definitions, methods and applications, and presents them for each of the phases of define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) model. It also gives overviews of software: MINITAB statistical data analysis software, TPS‐LSS Project BSCsoft, and TPS‐LSS Personal BSCsoft. Appendix B. C, and D, respectively cover extra tools for effective interpersonal communication and for team evaluation; TPS‐LSS team evaluation; and TPS‐LSS knowledge management.

Rampersad has in this book, like in previous books, blended both the western and eastern philosophies to help organizations to become efficient and effective in meeting customer requirements while at the same time helping employees attain the work‐life balance. This book, along with his other books on TPS, will be a very useful tool for managers of the future. The utility of the book would be enhanced if an index was included.